Nouri

We’re Jainam and Zihan, two international students who moved to LA from India and China and ended up with the same problem: every week we’d buy groceries with good intentions, and by Thursday, something in the fridge was rotting. We tracked it once — we were wasting about $60 a month. What made it worse was realizing a food bank four blocks away ran out of food by midweek. That disconnect didn’t sit right with us.

So we built Nouri. You scan your grocery receipt, and it knows what’s in your fridge. It reminds you before things go bad, suggests meals from what you already have, and rewards you when you save food. If you can’t use something, you can pass it to a neighbor or donate it nearby.

Building it wasn’t easy. Receipts are messy. Expiry dates aren’t reliable. And the moment you introduce rewards, you have to think about fraud and sustainability. We spent a lot of time making sure the system works in the real world and doesn’t fall apart at scale.

What we’re most proud of is that it feels simple. No typing everything in. No guilt. Just a smarter way to handle food. We’ve learned that people don’t need more pressure — they need better systems. Next, we’re growing the community side and working with restaurants and food banks to make sure food doesn’t just sit and expire — it moves.

Built With

• base44
• javascript
• node.js
• openai
• react
• redux